Political stuff

I normally stay away from politics in my blog. This blog is about my family life, so I don't think it is really an appropriate forum for me to bombard you with my political beliefs. However, a couple of things that I am quite passionate about came up today, so I thought I would add them here. This is a bit of a one off for me! Back to fluffy baby pictures tomorrow. (I got some lovely shots of Emma and some spagbog earlier, and I can't wait to share them with you).

Babies on TV:

I don't know how many of you watched the "Bringing up Baby" programme on Channel 4 last month. For those who didn't, it was a reality TV show following families with newborn babies who followed different methodologies for raising their children with the assistance of a mentor. The methodologies were Truby King's regimented regime from the 1950's (babies should be on a fixed never changing regime for feeding and sleeping), Dr Spock's Baby and Childcare from the 1960's (teaching parents to follow their instincts), and the Continuum Concept from the 1970's (babies should have constant physical contact with their parents for the first six months).

I was absolutely incensed by this programme. On the one hand, it did show some interesting different ways in which parents can choose to raise their babies. However, some of the methods were very questionable (verging on cruel in my opinion) and the programme failed to really highlight government recommended safety guidelines. There were also some infuriating throw away comments about how it doesn't matter whether you breastfeed or bottle feed. I am all for parents having choice, and bringing up their babies in the way that they feel is best. However, I thought the programme was misleading and it missed a huge opportunity to promote sleeping safety guidelines, breastfeeding support, and other issues that are important to new parents.

The Truby King mentor in particular was particularly forceful about the strict regime of her program. (Feeding only a tiny bit to a hungry baby, then force feeding it loads later on to make it sleep through the night, not paying any attention to crying babies and claiming that the babies were being manipulative, I could go on and on). When I complained about it amongst my friends and family, a lot of them said that the programme was trying to be sensationalist (it is Channel 4 after all!!) But what really upset me was that in the middle of all this were a group of innocent newborn babies.

Anyway... the series finished a few weeks ago, so you are probably wondering why I am still ranting on about it. Well, I was looking on the NCT (National Childbirth Trust) website today, and see that they are adding their voice to calls for an independent ethics committee to be set up to monitor so-called 'reality' TV shows that involve babies and children. I am so pleased to hear about this, and completely support the move. I just hope that it can prevent such appalling programmes being made in the future.

Follow on Milk advertising:

There is an advert doing the rounds at the moment for SMA follow on milk, which has a father to be talking about his promises to his baby and the mother. It is really lovely, but then he promises to do his share of the night feeds, and it cuts to a tin of SMA formula milk. Anyway, there are a lot of people who think this is inappropriate (although it is legal), and a number of complaints have been filed with the Advertising Standards Agency.

Once again, I am all for choice. I choose to breastfeed my baby, and intend to do so until we are both ready to stop. (Meaning that I have no fixed plans about duration). However, I had a load of problems with this when I was starting out, and for a couple of weeks I had to substitute with formula. I had done a lot of research prior to Emma's birth, and received a lot of support from relevant health workers, so I made informed choices. If women consider breastfeeding, and decide for whatever reason that it is not for them, knowing full well that their baby will miss out on the health benefits of breastfeeding, then that is their choice and they should be able to make it guilt free. But adverts like this give very little real information, and make it look like formula is a natural choice. This is pretty confusing!!

Anyway... the Food Standards Agency is currently making decisions about advertising regulations for infant and follow on formula. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/6933188.stm and if it is something you want to know more about, then here is another blog all about it:
http://boycottnestle.blogspot.com/2007/11/support-uk.html